English Cycles - i've been llusting after his winter belt drive road commuter bike for a couple of years now. That thing is tailor made for the heinous winter conditions I live in. I actually just emailed them about some possibilities regarding that design

Yes it would be interesting to see the English TT frame in the wind tunnel, although in my experience testing in the tunnel smaller frontal area is not always faster tested with a rider. Send it over and we can see

It is hard to tell from the photos exactly but it looks UCI illegal to me, especially the seat stay position and it is custom, the UCI doesn't like custom.

It is Rob's personal bike and is designed to fit him. To my knowledge, he doesn't race UCI races, so who cares if it is UCI-legal or not? It isn't going to be mass produced for use by a pro team. Apart from the Richard Sachs CX bike, I don't think anything at NAHBS is UCI-legal.

I would also suggest that no matter how aero a bike is (or is not) in a wind tunnel, the bigger key is how aero the rider can be on the bike while still maintaining the necessary power to go fast. Rob is a consistent winner and age-group record setter of the races in which he competes. I'd say that means he and his machine combine to make a VERY aero system.

I pretty sure a number of those custom guys got their frame designs(not necessarily what was shown at NAHBS) approved by the UCI. Richard Sachs was leading the way when the new regulations first came out iirc.

I pretty sure a number of those custom guys got their frame designs(not necessarily what was shown at NAHBS) approved by the UCI. Richard Sachs was leading the way when the new regulations first came out iirc.

Richard Sachs is the only one I've ever seen with a UCI "approved" sticker on his frames. I guess Boo or Seven would have to have their frames approved as they also sponsor pro riders in CX and MTB. But I'm not sure if any of the other custom builders supply bikes for registered pro teams. Does the rule apply to individuals racing in the elite ranks? Obviously there are none racing on the road at the World Tour, but there are many independent, pro CX and MTB racers out there. I'm not sure how the rule applies to them or how many get their bikes from small, custom makers.

Here in Australia you can't turn up to a club race without UCI approved stuff, even water bottles, that is one reason I made that comment on UCI legalality.

I have been involved with wind tunnel testing since 2006 and have often wondered how a bike such as this might perform in a test, I have had these discussions with a very prominent builder of handcrafted frames here in Aus. However for the test to be valid it needs to meet the UCI spec that the comparison frames have to meet. And the rider/bicycle combined is what matters in a test, frame only testing is of questionable value.

Whether Rob is fast or not is not an argument that the bike is fast. Cancellara has won on Cervelo, Specialized, Trek, etc and would probably beat most of us here on a clown bike.

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